Showcase of journalism by George Richardson

Monthly Archives: March 2011

London is a surreal place. Coming from a tiny village in deepest darkest South Devon where there is a bus maybe once a week, you could understand if you needed to run for it, however on the underground tube trains, when there’s a train nearly every minute, there is surely no need to cram yourself into an already crammed carriage.

I also managed to get myself shunned and shouted at when my oyster card had run out of credit and a turnstile, I swear you if you drop to the floor and I doubt anyone would stop or even turn their heads.

Hearing an announcement that someone had jumped onto the tracks, I heard people next to me curse and grunt in frustration as reports of delays soon followed. Mental.

It was pot luck as I stumbled across the Auto Trader building in Wimbledon and arrived literally bang on time. I met Keri Fuller, the online editor for Boat International, at the reception and she led me around, giving a quick tour and some passing introductions to some people who I have since never seen again, nor can I remember their names.

I met Nick Martin, whose title I’m still not sure of, all I know is – he’s my boss, not THE boss, but the section chief for the online department. He’s a really nice guy, very friendly and accommodating, as was the rest of the team.

I think a quick overview is important at this point, the CEO is a guy called Tony Harris, a man who clearly enjoys a weekend abroad and has an attitude that says he likes other people to know about it. He’s the publisher. First lesson learned; the editor is not the most important person in a magazine. By far, the person who holds the most weight, control, and clearly has the last word is the Publisher. The staff quake a little, quite visibly when he talks to them, and then they tease him after he’s gone to reassure themselves that he is only human.

Next up is the editor. Amanda McCracken. I’m not sure if I’ve met her yet… The other staff seem to operate independently from Amanda. By other staff I mean around the 30 or 40 people I’ve clocked so far. These include a whole sales team, an events organising team, advertising, the editorial group, the digital department and the media production team (Superyachts Media).

Servanne Sohier, the editorial assistant, seems to be good friends with Keri Fuller. It seems that so far Amanda is working abroad or is on holiday, or pregnant? I’m not sure yet but the editorial assistant has had to step up and do her job as well as her own. I don’t think she’s too happy about it.

Victoria Hansen is the commercial director. She’s in the office with the rest of the online editorial department. In fact, the digital department so far only consists of Keri, Victoria, Nick, myself, and another guy called George. He edits the footage for Superyachts Media, a subsidiary company that produces films of these gargantuan yachts.

So far so good, I’m shattered though, trapsing though London is risky business for shire folk. Not sure how many of these blogs I’m going to jam up here.

Whilst applying for work experience at Front, the application requires a short 200 word review of the latest film I’ve seen. I haven’t the pennies to go to the cinema so the most recent is still Paul. This is the edited and tweaked with ‘Front flair’ edition.

Before valentines day, we were supposed to pretend that we were bothered about roses and chocolates, making girls swoon and your mates throw up. In reality, Film 4 was running Pegg season making us laugh till it hurt.

Cinemas were booked out for the whole week. Frost and Pegg were apparently better than sex for seven days. Nerds probably can’t tell the difference.

‘Paul’ is an offering to the sci-fi god himself, referencing parodies from his holy saga like the Pope from that book, even though lord Lucas was portrayed as an unimaginative 80’s man.

There is actually a sense of realism about it. It feels more like Pineapple Express than E.T (cheers again Seth). It’s one of the most believable plot lines of science fiction film because it toys with ideas we’ve already seen and converts it into obvious fact.

You have to relish in understanding what they’ve done, taking the michael out character stereotypes. In Hot Fuzz it was the ‘scarily close to truth’ reflection of country dwellers, in Shaun of the Dead it was a zombies chasing man trying to show he’s not a looser. A little long-winded, but the fact is that the Pegg and Frost combo have this time finally gone for the jugular… Americans.

Before valentine’s day, we were all supposed be ordering roses and chocolates, booking restaurants and planning grand romantic gestures to make our lovers swoon and our mates throw up. Instead, we were all engrossed in the Simon Pegg season. Film 4 were showing all of Pegg’s classics to get us salivating, nay, foaming at the mouth for the next Pegg/ Frost epic – Paul.

That pink and rosy day passed. Romantic disasters came and went and the next evening we dared to go and watch the film. Actually, the cinemas were booked out almost all week, so it was more like the week after. With all the hype, the girlfriend out-of-the-way, this stereotype alien held all of your concentration…

This film is an offering to the sci-fi god himself, even quoting his holy saga on numerous occasions. There is a twist that suggests our loveable drug overlord character (voiced by Seth Rogan) actually influenced popular culture and science fiction. The reason he looks like every other alien is because he wanted to look like every other alien. Cool concept, I’m not sure that our lord Lucas saw it coming, even though he was quoted in the film and shown as an unimaginative 80’s man.

So the film does actually has a sense of realism about it. It feels more like Pineapple Express than E.T (cheers again Seth). It’s the one of the most believable plot lines of science fiction film because it toys with ideas we’ve already seen and converts it into obvious fact.

At the same time, you can relish in understanding what Pegg and Frost have done. They take the michael out character stereotypes. In Hot Fuzz it was the ‘scarily close to truth’ reflection of country dwellers, in Shaun of the Dead it was a strange zombie culture surrounding a plot where a man tries to show he’s not a looser. A little long-winded, but the fact is that the Pegg and Frost combo have this time finally gone for the jugular… Americans.

Without giving too much away, the film actually works on a level that undermines stereotypes. It’s something a little more substantial than a spoof about aliens as it challenges huge debates about religion and more importantly the ‘what would you do’ dilemma, more specifically, what would you do if you were first contact?